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Puffing up early-type galaxies by baryonic mass loss: numerical experiments

Observations performed in the last few years indicate that most massive early-type galaxies (ETGs) observed at redshift z>1 exhibit sizes smaller by a factor of a few than local ETGs of analogous stellar mass. We present numerical simulations of the effect of baryonic mass loss on the structure of a spheroidal stellar system, embedded in a dark matter halo. This process, invoked as a possible explanation of the observed size increase of ETGs since z \sim 2, could be caused either by QSO/starburst driven galactic winds, promptly ejecting from Early Type Galaxies (ETGs) the residual gas and halting star formation (galactic winds), or by stellar mass returned to the ISM in the final stages of stellar evolution. Indeed, we find that a conceivable loss of about 50% of the baryonic mass can produce a significant size increase. However, the puffing up due to galactic winds occurs when the stellar populations are much younger than the estimated ages >0.5 Gyr of compact high-z ETGs. Therefore, while it may have had a role in deciding the final structure of ETGs, it cannot explain the evolution observed so far of their size-mass relation; its signature should be searched for in much younger systems. Conversely, the mass loss due to stellar evolution could cause a relatively modest expansion of passively evolving stellar systems later on, contributing to, without dominating, the observed evolution of their mass-size relationship.